


Forbidden 'Pleasures'

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:54:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25310059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Blair's first months at Rainier, and thinking back over his life until then
Kudos: 7





	Forbidden 'Pleasures'

**Author's Note:**

> Written for th Sentinel Thursday prompt 'experiment'

Forbidden 'Pleasures'

by Bluewolf

Almost the first thing Blair noticed when he went to Rainier was the way almost all of his fellow freshmen were spending their first weeks enjoying the freedom from parental restrictions that being at University gave them. Many were spending their first time ever away from home - in some cases, quite a long way away from home. One was from Oregon, one from northern California, and two from Montana.

He was not surprised that he was not invited to join the others when they set about enjoying that freedom. He knew that at sixteen, he was too young to be accepted into what the others believed to be 'adult' life.

And secretly? He knew that even at sixteen he was more mature than almost all of his fellows.

Even at eighteen, most of them looked too young to go out drinking - but one or two had decided to attend university after working for two or three years, so they were older, could prove their age, and bought booze for their younger classmates. Sitting in a quiet corner of the common room, Blair mentally shook his head as he watched the eighteen-year-olds consume drink after drink, in some cases mixing their drinks, in others sticking to just one - but the end result was the same. Most of them staggered to bed drunk.

Blair knew that in the morning some - most - would have been sick, all would be nursing headaches... and while some would immediately learn from the experience, others wouldn't, and would repeat the over-drinking several times. Eventually most would probably learn when to stop, but Blair was well aware that there would always be one or two who never learned, and who would always over-indulge when they drank... even if they lived to be a hundred.

He, himself... Naomi had introduced him to well-watered wine when he was six, and well-watered liquor when he was ten. He knew what he enjoyed, what he would drink when he was of legal age; he didn't need to experiment and a few years on the wagon, so to speak, would be no hardship.

After the booze came drugs, though not many of the freshmen tried drugs. Blair had a strong suspicion that probably a lot of the ones who didn't had already tried once - possibly cannabis or marijuana - and didn't need - or want - to try again.

Blair had never taken any drug, but he didn't need to experiment with drugs either. Over the years, Naomi had taken him to some communes, and there he had seen men - and women - who were hooked on drugs. He had asked Naomi why, and she hadn't been able to give him an answer that made sense to him. It helped them to relax? Naomi had taught him how to meditate, and while at his age he didn't have the patience to meditate for long, Blair was well aware that it did help him to relax his often hyperactive behavior. It wasn't always easy to find solitude to meditate at Rainier, but he had discovered that at night, in bed - even though he was lying down, not sitting in semi-lotus - it was possible to meditate.

Meanwhile, while his classmates wasted time enjoying the freedom from parental control, Blair took the opportunity to study, glad that now he was in a situation where 'study' wasn't considered the waste of time that some of Naomi's boy friends had seemed to think it was. Oh, he had learned a surprising amount from a few of them, including an enjoyment of basketball and a marginal knowledge of boxing, but there were others who seemed to think that a boy his age should be thinking of books, of learning, as unnecessary evils. At least one had been totally illiterate, and proud of it; in his world only weaklings - aka females - could read and write. Those were activities that were beneath his dignity, though he had reluctantly accepted that occasionally he had to be able to scrawl his name on a document. The only job he had been able to get was collecting garbage - but as far as he was concerned, he was using his muscles and that proved that he was a _man_.

Blair had no social life; but he was quite used to that. He was used to being regarded by the adults in his life - even at times his mother - as an unwanted encumbrance. He had no doubt that Naomi loved him, but he knew that basically, at his age, he was an encumbrance, holding her back; he was quite sure that now he was at Rainier she would be relieved that she was responsible for nobody but herself.

She had taught him independence. And that was probably the most important influence she had had on his life.


End file.
